More Offices Are Shedding the Suit

By STEPHANIE STROM

Published: May 10, 1992

WHEN the air-conditioning at L & F Products broke down last summer and the company was told it would take three weeks to fix it, Michael R. Gallagher started a small revolution.

Contemplating visions of middle managers sweating in the company's sealed office building in Montvale, N.J., Mr. Gallagher, the president, suggested that everyone come to work in chinos and polo shirts.

The air-conditioning is back on, but L & F employees are still dressing casually -- khakis, sportcoats, chambray shirts. "People's attitudes seemed to improve, there was more give-and-take and our productivity increased," said Mr. Gallagher, whose company makes Lysol, Ogilvie home permanents and other household items.

A growing number of companies, and not just computer designers and youthful advertising agencies, have adopted more informal standards. The look is what the fashion trade calls "business casual." Cut-offs and ripped t-shirts aren't in, but neither are wool suits or ties. Alcoa, the aluminum giant, has the look, as does the BIC Corporation. Citibank's marketing department has "casual days."

And, as bits of corporate America shed the suit, makers of tailored clothing are hurting. Sales of the traditional suit -- a jacket and pants cut from the same fabric and sold with the assumption that a tailor will make alterations -- have slumped, while sales of knit shirts are up. Levi Strauss & Company sold a record $850 million worth of casual twill trousers last year as Brooks Brothers' profits plummeted 50 percent.

"We're reducing our overall manufacturing capacity so that I don't have to try to sell suits into this tough environment," said Michael Sandler, vice president of merchandise and product development at the Greiff Companies, which makes men's suits for Perry Ellis, Ralph Lauren's Polo University and other labels.

Recessionary layoffs among lawyers, bankers and stockbrokers help explain the drop in sales. So do suit prices. Levi's Dockers pants sell for about $40 and a sportcoat costs about $250. But the cheapest line that Hartmarx, a major suit manufacturer, makes for full-price retailers sells for $450, and its Hickey-Freeman line retails for up to $1,250. Designer suits cost far more. Prices jumped with the price of wool in the late 1980's and have stayed up.

The increasing economic importance of Florida, southern California and other states where wearing wool suits borders on insanity has added to the malaise for manufacturers.

And the entry of women into the workplace has changed men's attitudes. Women have more choice in office attire, wearing suits, dresses and trousers in a wide variety of fabrics and colors. Now men want some of the same.

"Until the last few years, about the only choice men have had is, 'Do you wear cuffs or don't you?' " said Lynn Shnurnberger, a fashion historian and author of "Let There Be Clothes."

But women who can sport "business casual" embrace it as eagerly as their male colleagues. "You don't have to wear pantyhose in the summer," said Julie Sweeney, a category manager at L & F in a chambray shirt and khakis. "And my dry-cleaning bills have certainly gone down."

Fashion experts say the shift reflects a fundamental change in lifestyle -- now that those making the change can finally dare to make it. "The guy who was part of the jeans generation in the 1970's wasn't interested in wearing a wool flannel suit," said Alan G. Millstein, publisher of the Fashion Network Report. "He may have had to when he started his career, but now he's running the corporation."

Someone like Bruno Bich, perhaps. "There's something strange about putting a tie around your windpipe," said Mr. Bich, the 45-year-old chairman of the BIC Corporation, where the engineers and sales people behind disposable pens, lighters and shavers have disposed of their neckwear too. They say creativity is enhanced.

Dominick Pisciotta, a senior product manager at L & F, said, "People tend to forget about who's the boss and who's the employee when everyone is wearing loafers and polo shirts."

But fashion authorities say the tailored suit still isn't at any risk of going the way of wide ties, Nehru jackets and the Full Cleveland (leisure suit with white belt and shoes).

"I was at the Harvard Club the other day and, believe me, they're still wearing tailored suits," said Ms. Shnurnberger. "Of course, they're still eating fried crabcakes and canned peas, too."